10 days and 1,000 miles away: How Shane Beamer built his first USC recruiting class
There was no grace period. No easing in. From the moment South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner offered Shane Beamer the head football coaching job, the clock started ticking.
A week and a half. That’s all the time the 43-year-old, first-time head coach had to finalize the first piece of his inaugural Gamecocks recruiting class.
The process started in Columbia, where Beamer was introduced as USC’s new head coach on Dec. 7. For the couple of days Beamer was in town, he did all he could to pore over his newly inherited roster, to understand its strengths and areas of need. He peeled back layer after layer, digging into the 2021 recruits the team still had committed and which ones decommitted. Beamer leaned on Drew Hughes, director of player personnel, to fill in the informational gaps. Then Beamer flew back to Norman, Oklahoma, where his work only intensified.
For the last 10 days, Beamer has spent his mornings on Oklahoma practice fields and meeting rooms, fulfilling his final duties as an assistant coach. And every afternoon, he has closed the door to his office, picked up his phone and called player, after player, after player, trying to cobble together a South Carolina recruiting class from 1,000 miles away.
He couldn’t have done it alone. After all, the eight signees that USC secured on Wednesday’s signing day all originally committed to Will Muschamp’s coaching staff.
“I want to commend and thank the 10 coaches remaining in Columbia for their hard work throughout this process,” Beamer said. “I’ve been through it. My dad retired at Virginia Tech back in 2015 in early November. Having to balance a couple different things, a signing class and their futures as well — whether it be in Columbia, South Carolina or elsewhere. And they’ve done an amazing job of maintaining and continuing to work for the University of South Carolina and recruit young men there.”
The class is small — a far-cry from the 15 or 20 signees USC would reel in on a typical signing day. Then again, nothing is typical about recruiting during the COVID-19 pandemic or assembling a class 10 days after being introduced as head coach.
Beamer said the size of the class is by design, a byproduct of his slow-and-steady process. The new coach has said repeatedly he wants to take his time assembling the coaching staff around him, and it’s clear Beamer is taking the same approach with the 2021 class.
“I didn’t want to come in as the head coach and say, ‘How many guys do we have committed? How many guys do we have scholarships for?’ And then all of a sudden go sign guys just to sign guys,” Beamer said. “It was important to me that we got the right guys and the right fit in here.”
That meant countless phone calls and video chats over a short span of time as Beamer carefully vetted each commitment. Even Beamer’s 7-year-old son, Hunter, introduced himself to three recruits over FaceTime.
Quarterback Colton Gauthier, from Bethlehem, Georgia, was the first recruit to sign with Beamer’s Gamecocks on Wednesday, and the coach credited Gauthier’s leadership for helping to keep the class intact. Other class highlights include two key in-state signees in dynamic South Pointe high receiver/athlete O’Mega Blake and junior college defensive back Marcellas Dial, who originally hails from Woodruff.
While talking to in-state recruits, Beamer said he used the same pitch about South Carolina pride that he once used with former Gamecock greats like Marcus Lattimore, Stephon Gilmore and DeVonte Holloman when he was serving as recruiting coordinator under Steve Spurrier.
Once a Gamecock recruit himself, Holloman now coaches Blake at South Pointe. The former Gamecock linebacker still remembers how special Beamer made him feel a decade ago when he and then-defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson recruited him to USC.
“I felt like I was a priority recruit,” Holloman told The State. “I’m sure everybody wants to feel like that coming out of high school.”
Timberland High head coach Greg Wright, another former Gamecock who played under Beamer, called the head coach a “tireless recruiter,” saying he recruited “a lot of my buddies that are in the (NFL) now.”
Still, Beamer didn’t have the typical two years to flesh out this class. He barely had two weeks. On the morning Tanner officially introduced Beamer as head coach, he told Beamer about the late basketball coach Jim Valvano’s theory that there are three eight-hour shifts in a day. For the last 10 days, Beamer took those words to heart.
There’s still work to be done and still recruits to sign as the Gamecocks move into the Beamer era. Shortly after Beamer’s signing day news conference, offensive lineman JonDarius Morgan joined the class as the eighth signee. Beamer said he expects more to trickle in during the coming days and weeks as he assembles his staff and lays the groundwork for the program.
For the time being, all he can do is pick up his phone and dial. He said he’s already reached out to 2022 recruits, too.
“You’re trying to sell them and talk to them about your vision, what you want your program to look like, what it is going to be about on the field, how I see them fitting in,” Beamer said. “So it takes a lot of trust ... and really it was just me trying to be honest and real and as genuine as I could be. And if I didn’t have an answer that they asked, I’d be truthful and tell them, ‘I don’t know.’ And I’m thankful that these guys saw that.
“But it’s certainly been a lot of phone calls and a lot of conversations and text messages and things like that. You’re trying to do two years worth of work in about 10 days, and that is definitely a challenge. But it’s been enjoyable.”
USC 2021 signing class
OFFENSE
Caleb McDowell — RB, Leesburg, Georgia
Colten Gauthier — QB, Bethlehem, Georgia
O’Mega Blake — WR/ATH, Rock Hill
Jordan Davis — OL, Fairburn, Georgia
JonDarius Morgan — OL, Birmingham, Alabama
Sam Reynolds — WR, Alabaster, Alabama
DEFENSE
Marcellas Dial — DB, Woodruff
Nicholas Barrett — DL, Goldsboro, North Carolina
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 8:10 AM with the headline "10 days and 1,000 miles away: How Shane Beamer built his first USC recruiting class."
